1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a content usage managing apparatus, a content usage managing method and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In related art, advertisement business of providing advertisement information has been performed for a specific service provider who provides a service such as electronic commerce (EC) on a website. An advertisement dealer provides a content group including a number of contents as the advertisement information for service providers and a specific service provider provides a service utilizing the content group on one's own website in compliance with usage rules and the like of the content group.
For example, the content group is configured as a group of content subgroups which respectively include one or more contents. The content subgroup includes one or more contents having mutual relativity and being displayed on a single webpage or one or more webpages to be displayed therewith. Meanwhile, in the content group, the content subgroups are linked from one another via the content included in the content subgroup. Accordingly, the content group is configured so that a number of contents included in the content group have predetermined relativity from one another.
The content group is provided to the specific service provider and utilized in compliance with the usage rules restricting unauthorized usage of the content such as usage in part and usage with modifying the predetermined relativity of the content included in the content group. Meanwhile, the content included in the content group is possible to be utilized by other service providers. Accordingly, some service providers copy the content in an unauthorized manner from a website of the specific service provider and utilize the content on one's own-related website without permission. Here, depending on the usage status and the like of the content group, there is a case that the unauthorized usage of the content by the other service provider is desired to be restricted.
In related art, embedding hidden information such as an electronic watermark and a fingerprint into the content is known as means to prevent the content from being copied in an unauthorized manner. By performing a detection process of the hidden information embedded in the content, the advertisement dealer can identify the content copied in an unauthorized manner and specify an unauthorized usage of the content.
There exist an unlimited number of contents utilized by service providers who provide services on websites. In addition, the detection process of the hidden information embedded in the content requires considerable time. Therefore, it is practically difficult to specify an unauthorized usage of the content by performing the detection process of the hidden information on the contents respectively one by one.
In light of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a content usage managing apparatus, a content usage managing method and a program with which unauthorized usage of a content included in a content group can easily be specified.